AA: Miles toward Upgrades Reset

If you are an American Airlines (AA) Elite Gold or Platinum member, then you earn upgrades as you fly.  For every 10,000 miles you fly, straight "butt in seat", you get four 500 mile upgrades.  These upgrades can be used to upgrade into the next class of service from the ticket you purchased.  

Just for reference, Executive Platinum level members do not earn 500 mile upgrades as they are upgraded on a complimentary basis.

Back to Gold and Platinum.  The earning "year" for the 500 mile upgrades is March 1 to February 28/29.  So every year, on March 1 you go back to ZERO and start earning all over again.  Why this is important is that you may have been close to another 4 upgrades at February 28 this year; close to the next 10,000 increment.  However, AA will just reset your upgrade mileage balance to zero and many people do nothing about this (I am even guilty about this in past years).  However, last year I learned to call AAdvantage to get  some upgrades based on where I was when the reset happened.

As an example.  The Mrs had a balance of about 27,049 in her "miles towards upgrades" on February 28, 2013.  On March 1, that balance went to 0.  Had she reached 30,000, she would have gotten 4 upgrades.  She called the Platinum desk and kindly requested some upgrades for almost reaching 30,000 and the customer service agent told her she would credit her 2 upgrades.  The Mrs thanked the agent for the 2 and simply asked if it was possible to get 3 since she had gotten so close.  The CS agent agreed and said 3 upgrades would be credited in 48 or so hours.

So, I highly suggest calling AAdvantage to get credit for any upgrades you can.  A majority of people won't know their balance at February 28 since they don't keep track of this separately like I do.  In that case, still call and inquire what the balance was since the agents can look it up.  Be nice and you will receive.

Do it sooner than later!

"Quickies"

I haven't gotten around to posting lately, but I wanted to throw out some "quickies" that I came across recently; all quickies today are for KUDOS:

1)  The American Airlines iPhone App keeps you informed about where you are on the standby list.  This past Friday I attempted, successfully, to jump onto an earlier flight by going standby.  After checking in at the kiosk and putting my name on the standby list, I opened up the iPhone app, for something else actually, and noticed that the standby list information is right there on the app.  Very cool feature so you don't have to stay at the gate staring at the list to see where you stand.  I was able to enjoy a couple of beverages at the terminal bar and still see the standby list activity.  Kudos to AA!

2)  Changing award reservations can be tricky.  However, I find them very well explained by American Airlines.  I had redeemed quite a few miles for First Class tickets for my Dad later this year.  I've been keeping an eye out on better routing.  Last week I found a better option.  I was scared that there would be some change fees or other charges relating to the using of my miles.  However, one of the benefits of Executive Platinum (EXP) status, is that many fees and charges are waived.  After a brief call with the EXP desk, I was able to get my Dad's trip changed to some better flights that were fewer miles and cost less than what I had originally booked.  The miles and dollar difference were quickly returned with hardly an effort on my part.  Keep in mind, if you are NOT EXP, you will incur fees.  Kudos to AA, again, for a great Elite benefit!

3)  If you have SPG Gold status via the American Express Platinum Card (a benefit), you may want to check that your status wasn't downgraded on 3/1 (the annual day of status updates).  I noticed this weekend that my SPG status was downgraded from Gold to just "Preferred" Member.  While this year my focus IS SPG, last year I just stayed at a Sheraton 4 nights.  A quick call to Amex customer service and they got me back to Gold instantly.  I still need to see some Gold points credited for me since a Sheraton stay ended on 3/1, but all in all, everything is back to normal.  Kudos to Amex Platinum Customer Service!

4)  Unrelated to travel, kudos to Macy's for their return policy.  I won't get into details here, but Macy's "no time limit" return policy is AWESOME!